Dr. J. Vernon McGee, Pastor, Church of the Open Door, Los Angeles.
I Left the Presbytery By J. V e r n o n M c G ee
Why
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C o n c e r n i n g Ta l b o t Sem i n a r y . ” Among other things, the report re quested me to sever my relationship with the Bible Institute of Los An geles and the Talbot Theological Seminary if I wished to remain a member of the Presbytery of Los Angeles. I had never taught in the Talbot Theological Seminary, and I was on a two-year leave of absence from the Bible Institute of Los An geles. The pressure of my duties as pastor of the Church of the Open Door has made it necessary recently for me to discontinue teaching alto gether. In spite of this situation in which I could continue, for a time, in the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., I have withdrawn. In a personal interview with one of the officials of the Los Angeles Presbytery, I asked him if it were not idealistic to make a distinction be tween the Bible Institute of Los An geles and the Church of the Open Door. He smiled and agreed that this was true. He also agreed that it CONTINUED
It is interesting to note that Dr. Charles A. Hodge left a sick bed in order to record his vote against such an agreement. By 1870 the compro mise was consummated. Briefly, this is how modernism first entered the Presbyterian Church. Much has been made in recent years of the defection in the Church as revealed by the Au burn Affirmation. The Auburn Af firmation was merely one of the fruits off the tree of liberal theology which began to grow over a century before. Obviously, it was not the presence of modernism in the Church which has caused my recent withdrawal as I was fully aware of its existence when I entered the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. The reason is not theological but ecclesiastical. In or der to clarify this statement some personal facts are pertinent at this point. Last spring—May 28, 1954—I re ceived a registered letter from the Presbytery of Los Angeles, dated May 11, 1954, with the heading, “ General Council Report and Recommendation
he presence of modernism in the Pr e s by t e r i an Church, U.S.A. is not a new condition. It was in 1801 that the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church entered into an agreement with the General Association of Connecticut relative to a plan of union. By this relationship New England Theology entered the Presbyterian Church. New England Theology was later labeled “modern ism.” By 1837 a division of the Church was made into the “ Old School” and the “ New School.” Princeton Semi nary represented the theology of the Old School while Union Seminary (New York) represented the theology of the New School. The withdrawal of the Chinch in the Southern States, during the Civil War, greatly weak ened the Old School as the South largely belonged to this section. A short time after the withdrawal of the Southern Synods, the Old and New Schools in the North entered into an agreement which was a def inite compromise for the Old School.
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